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Brticles of :as6ociation ... 

ConBtitution 

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Xiste of XLn\6tcc3, ©fficers anD /Iftembers 

1S96. 




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Ube Sbaftegpcaye ipicgs. 






©I^USTEES. 



George Livingston Baker. 
Harrison Grey Fiske. 
Albert R. Frey. 
W. O. Bates. 
Apple TON Morgan. 



Oppigei^s. 

Appleton Morgan, President. 

Martin W. Cooke, First Vice-President, 

Harrison Grey Fiske, Second Vice-Presiden* 

Albert R. Frey, Recording Secietary. 

W. O. Bates, Assistant Recording Secretary. 

B. Rush Field, Librarian. 

Nelson Wheatcroft, Assistant Librarian. 

James A. Waldron, Treasurer. 

Thos. M. Wyatt, Attorney and Counsel. 



L. L. Lawrence. Clerk of Publication Committee. 
Bankers, The Colonial Bank, New York City. 
Cable Address, "Orangery, New York." 

By a late resolution The Dramatic Mirror (1433 Broad- 
way, New York,) was made the official organ of this 
Society. 



^^^^ 



The office of the Soci^tj; is at No. 21 Park Row, in the City of 
New York. Assembly ];?,qcKiis, Hamilton Hall, Columbia College^ 
Forty-ninth Street and Madison Avenue, New York City. 

Address all letters of inquiry: "The Recording Secretary, New 
York City." Catalogues of the Society's Publications sent on ap- 
plication. 



By transfer 

iOV .5 'J ^90T 



ARTICLES OF ASSOCIATION. 

We, the undersigned, being of full age and citizens of the United 
States, and residents of the State of New York, do hereby associate 
ourselves together to form a society pursuant to the provisions of an 
act of the legislature of the State of New York, entitled "An Act for 
the Incorporation of Benevolent, Charitable, Scientific and Mission- 
ary Societies," and the several acts amendatory thereof, and in com- 
pliance with the requirements of said act, and do hereby certify as 
follows : 

First. The name and title by which said society shall be known 

is " The Shakespeare Society of New York." 

Second. The objects of this Society shall be to promote the 
knowledge and study of Shakespeare's dramatic works in such man- 
ner and form as the by-laws of this society shall designate, and to 
collect and maintain a library of books, papers and pamphlets relat- 
ing to William Shakespeare and the Shakespearian and Elizabethan 
drama. 

Third. The aifairs of this corporation shall be managed by a 
board of trustees, to be elected annually by its members on the sec- 
ond Monday in April of each year. Each member shall be entitled 
to one vote, which shall be given in person or by proxy. Appleton 
Morgan, Rosrcellus S. Guernsey, Albert R. Frey, A. Chalmers Hinton, 
Brander Matthews and James E. Reynolds shall constitute the fiist 
board of trustees, to hold their oifices during the first year. Vacan- 
cies by death or resignation may be filled by choice of the remaining 
members of the Board, and a majority of the Board shall constitute a 
quorum for the transaction of business. 

Fourth. The trustees shall elect the first president and vice- 
president, who shall hold office until the election in April, 1886, at 
which time all of said ofiicers shall be elected by the members of the 
society in person or by proxy. 

Fifth. The trustees may appoint a secretary, treasurer, and 
librarian, and such other officers as the by-laws may designate. 

Sixth. The business of said society is to be conducted in the 
City of New York and State of New York. 

In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands and afiixed 
our seals this eighteenth day of April, 1885. 

R. S. Guernsey. [seal] 

Appleton Morgan. [seal] 

Albert R. Frey. [seal] 

A. Chalmers Hinton. [seal] 

Jas. E. Reynolds. [seal] 

3 



City and County of New York, ss. : 

On this eighteenth day of April, 1885, before me personally 
came Eoscellus S. Guernsey, Albert R. Frey, Appleton Mor- 
gan, James E. Reynolds and A. Chalmers Hinton, to me person- 
ally known, and known to me to be the individuals described in and 
who executed the foregoing instrument, and personally acknowl- 
edged that they executed the same for the purposes therein men- 
tioned. 

Charles C. Marble, 

Notary Public in and for the City and County of New York. 

I, George G. Barrett, a justice of the Supreme Court of the State 
of New York for the first judicial district, residing in the City of 
New York, do hereby consent to and approve of the filing of this 
certificate of incorporation. 

Dated, New York, April 20, 1885. 

George G. Barrett. 

County clerk's memorandum ; " Filed and recorded 20th April, 
1885. 1. b.:35. 7. 

Filed in the office of the Secretary of the State of New York, 
29th April, 1885. 



CONSTITUTION. ] 

(As amended.) 

Article I. 

Title. 

1. This association sha)l be known as The Shakespeare Soci- 
ety OF New York. 

Article 1 1. 

Object. 

Its oViject shall be to promote the knowledge and study of the 
works of William Shakespeare, and of the Shakespearian and Eliza- 
bethan drama, and to maintain a library of books, papers, pictures, 
paintings, statuary and works of art relating thereto. 

Article III. 
Memhersliiji. 

I. There shall be four classes of membership : 1. Acti^ e. 2. 
Non-resident. 3. Corresponding. 4. Honorary. 

II. Any gentleman shall be eligible to membership. Active 
members shall be residents of the United States. 



II. Any person who shall contribute an accepted original paper 
to the society, and shall be recommended by the executive com- 
mittee, shall be eligible to corresponding membership. 

IV. Any person who shall be of recognized eminence as an 
author, editor or compiler of the Sl^akespearian drama, or of the 
Elizabethan drama, or of works and matters relating thereto, 
and shall be recommended by the executive committee, shall be 
eligible to honorary membership. 

Article IV. 

Rights and Privileges, 

I. Res-ident and non-resident members shall be equally eligible 
toofSce. All other rights and privileges shall be equally enjoyed. 

Article V. 

Officers. 

I. The officers shall be president, two vice-presidents, styled 
first and second, a recording secretary, an assistant recording secre- 
tary, a corresponding secretary, a treasurer, and a librarian, whose 
terms of office shall be three years. 

Article VI. 
Duties and Privileges of Officers. 

I. The president, or in his absence, the vice-presidents in their 
order, or in their absence, a (ih?i\xvns,n pro tempore, shall preside, and 
perform such other acts and duties as are customary for presiding 
officers. 

II. The recording secretary shall keep the minutes of the pro- 
ceedmgs of the meetings of the society and of the executive com- 
mittee ; notify officers and members of comoiitteesof their elections 
or appointments and members-elect of their elections ; certify 
official acts, and procure and sign with the president certificates of 
membership, and perform such other duties as are usually connected 
with the office. 

III. The assistant recording secretary shall keep a list of the 
members, issue the notices of the meetings, and, in the absence of 
the recording secretary, perform his duties. 

IV. The corresponding secretary shall conduct all the corres- 
pondence of the society, except that with active members. 

V. The treasurer shall have charge of all the money belonging 
to the society ; pay all its expenses by and with the consent and ap- 
proval of the executive committee ; and shall present an account of 

5 



the financial condition of the society at its annual meetings, to- 
gether with such suggestions for financial improvement as he may 
deem proper. 

VI. The librarian shall preserve and hold accessible to members 
of the society all contributions to the society pertaining to the 
library, and shall report to the society at its annual meetings as to 
the condition of the library, together with such suggestions as to its 
improvement as he may deem proper. 

Article VII. 
The Executive Committee. 

I. The officers of the society, together with the trustees, shall 
constitute an executive committee. Such committee shall meet at 
the call of the president, and to it shall be referred all matters of 
business except such matters as are prescribed for the trustees by the 
laws of the State. 

II. The ex-president last in office shall be ex officio a member of 
the executive committee for two years after his term of office as 
president has expired. 

Article VIII. 

Trustees. 

I. There shall be elected five trustees, chosen at the election 
first succeeding the adoption of the constitution. Two trustees 
shall be chosen for one year, two for two years, and one for three 
years ; and thereafter said five trustees shall b3 annually chosen 
for the term of one year each, as provided in the Articles of Asso- 
ciation. 

Article IX. 

Elections. 

I. All elections shall be determined by a majority of all votes 
cast. 

Article X. ■ 

Amendments : Hoio Made. 

I. Proposed amendments to this constitution shall be made in 
writing at a stated meeting, and referred to the executive committee, 
who shall report upon them at a stated meeting of the society within 
three months. If approved by the committee, two thirds of all votes 
cast at such stated meeting shall be sufficient for the adoption of the 
amendments. 



BY-LAWS. 

Article I. 

Meetings and Quorums. 

I. Stated meetings of the society shall be held not oftener than 
once a month, on such day as may be designated by order of the 
society or executive committee ; and special meetings at the time 
fixed by vote of the society or executive committee. Special meet- 
ings shall convene at the call of the chair. 

II. Five active members shall constitute a quorum for business 

III. Three members of the executive committee shall coufctitute 
a quorum. 

Article II. 

Admission of Mevibers. 

I. The names of candidates for membership shall first be pre- 
sented to the executive committee. If reported upon favorably by 
said committee, they shall be balloted for at the time the report is 
made, or at some subsequent meeting. Two-thirds of the votes cast 
shall be necessary for an election. 

Article III. 
Financial Requirements. 

I. Each resident member shyll pay an initiation fee of five dol- 
lars and annual daes of two dollars, and each non-resident member 
shall pay one-half of said initiation fee and one half of said annual 
dues, which on acceptance of said membership shall entitle him to a 
certificate of membership. 

II. Any member may commute his annual dues by the payment 
of twenty-five dollars at one time, which excuses him from annual 
dues for life. 

III. Any active member who shall have paid his initiation fee 
at any time prior to the first day of January, 1893, may on vote of 
the executive committee be relieved of all arrears of annual dues in 
which he may have been on that date, and all members of the soci- 
ety who by virtue of the above provision or otherwise shall be mem- 
bers upon the first day of March, 1893. shall be deemed charter 
members and thereafter any member who shall neglect to pay his 
dues or assessments for three months after his election shall be noti- 



fied by the treasurer, and sliould he, three months after such notice, 
neglect or refuse to pay, his name may be stricken from the roll of 
members at the discretion of the finance committee, which shall 
consist of the president, 1st vice president, secretaries and treasurer, 
to whom all questions of indebtedness lo the society shall be referred. 

IV. Charges against members shall be made in writing to the ex- 
ecutive comndttee under cover. If the committee shall think that 
the charges are of so grave a nature as to require an answer, copies 
of the same shall be served upon the accused, and he shall be cited 
to appear before the said committee and answer the said charges, at a 
meeiing to be held not less than fifteeia days from the time of serv- 
ing such notice. After due examination the said committee may 
acquit or admonish the delinquent, or may suspend him from partici- 
pation in the privileges of the society for a period not exceeding three 
months. If the committte shall think that the member ought to be 
expelled from the society, it shall be their duty to report the charges 
and the evidence to the society for action tliereupon. 

Article IV. 

The. Puhlisliivg Comviitlee. 

I. Any paper read before the society shall be referred to the 
committee on publication, consisting of the president, 1st vice-presi- 
dent, i-ecording secretaries, Jibiarian and trustees, which committee 
shall have power to direct its publication and distribution to members 
under the seal of the society. 

Article V. 
Tivie of Election. Vacancies. 

I. The tx'iennial election of officers provided for by Section First 
of Article Fifth of the Constitution, shall be by ballot or by written 
proxy, at the election in the triennial years at which the Trustees 
are elected, as provided in Article Third of the Articles of Incor- 
poration. 

II. Vacancies may be filled at any time by a special election, but 
such election shall be only for the time remaining before the next en- 
suing election. 

i\RTICLE VI. 
Order of Business. 

I. At the meetings the following shall be the order of business: 

1. Reading minutes of the preceding meeting. 

2. Report of the special committee. 



3. Report of executive committee and election of proposed 

members. 

4. Paper of the evening and discussion thereon. 

5. New or unfinished business. 

Article VII. 

Amending By-Laws. 

I. These by-laws may be amended at any meeting of the society 
by a majority vote of the members present, provided that at least 
thirty days' notice shall have been given to the members that 
such amendment or amendments would be voted upon at such 
meetine:. 



IReport of tbe IRominating (Tommittee of 

To THE Members of the New York Shakespeare Society : 

Your committee appointed to nominate the Trustees and 
Officers of this Society, to be balloted for at the ensuing election, 
respectfully report as follows : 

That Dr. Morgan has represented to us that he feels that his 
ten years' continuous and earnest services to the Society, as its 
President, entitle him to relief, and that he desires that his name 
do not come before this committee for re-nomination. 

That Mr. Frey, who has also given the Society his utmost 
and faithful services for ten years, as Recording Secretary and as 
Trustee, has notified us to the same effect. 

But that, in view of the repeated and virulent attacks which 
have been made by four ex- members upon this Society and upon 
the administration of the above-named officers: which have been, 
in some sense, an attack upon our entire board of officers, it has 
been the sense of this committee that no change should be made 
at this time in our presiding officer and his cabinet. We have, 
therefore, asked and received the consent of Messrs, Morgan and 
Frey to present you with the enclosed ballot for the election of 
April 9, being the second Tuesday in April, 1895, (being the day 
provided by Article III. of the Articles of Incorporation as the 
day for the annual election of Trustees), and by Section i of 
Article V. of the By-Laws, as the day on which our officers 
should be triennially elected. 

The Nominating Committee. 
Dated, New York, March 7, 1895. 



10 



ZcUcve' iSluaUfication anb IRcpoit 

City and County of New York, ss.: 

Henry J. Robert, being duly sworn, says that he will well 
and truly perform the duties of teller at the election of the officers 
and trustees of the Shakespeare Society of New York, to be held 
at Room 54 of No. 21 Park Row, in the City of New York, on the 
second Tuesday in April, of the year 1895, being the ninth day of 
April of said year. 



Henry J. Robert. 



Sworn to before me this 9th day of ^ 

April, 1895. I 

Cotton W. Bean, [ 

Notary Public, Westchester Co. | 

Certificate filed in New York Co. J 



City and County of New York, ss. 

Henry J. Robert, being duly sworn, doth depose and say that 
he was the teller appointed to act at the election of trustees and 
officers of the Shakespeare Society of New York, held at Room 
Si of No. 2[ Park Row, in the City of New York, on Tuesday. 
April 9, 1895, being the second Tuesday in April of said year. 
And that he did so act, and counted all votes cast. That the re- 
sult of said election was as follows: 

Appleton Morgan, for President and Trustee, received 45 
votes. 

Martin W. Cooke, for First Vice-President, received 45 votes. 

Harrison Grey Fiske, for Second Vice-President and Trustee, 
received 45 votes. 

Albert R. Frey, for Recording Secretary and Trustee.received 
45 votes. 

W. O. Bates, for Assistant Recording Secretary and Trustee, 
received 45 votes. 

B. Rush Field, for Librarian, received 45 votes. 

Nelson^Wheatcroft.for Assistant Librarian, received 45 votes. 

James A. Waldron, for Treasurer, received 45 votes. 

George Livingston Baker, for Trustee, received 45 votes. 

11 



And that there being no votes cast other than as above, the 
above Board of Officers and Trustees was elected. 

Henry J. Robekt. 

Sworn to before me this 9th day of "j 

April, 1895. I 

Cotton W. Bean, |- 

Notary Public, Westchester Co. | 

Certificate filed in New York Co. J 



Headquarters of the Shakespeare Society of New York. 

Room 54, Number 21 Park Row, 

New York City, April 23, 1895. 
A poll having been on this date opened ; and the undersigned 
having been appointed teller for said poll; and a vote having 
been taken for officers of the Shakespeare Society of New York 
for, and to serve in, the ensuing years 1895, 1896, 1897 and upto 
April 23, 1898, I hereby certify that I duly acted as teller at said 
poll, and counted all votes cast, and that the result of said elec- 
tion was as follows: 

Appleton Morgan, for President, received 35 votes. 
Martin W. Cooke, for First Vice-President, received 35 votes. 
Harrison Grey Fiske, for Second Vice-President, received 35 
votes. 

Albert R. Frey, for Recording Secretary, received 35 votes. 
W. O. Bates, for Assistant Recording Secretary, received 35 
votes. 

B. Rush Field, for Librarian, received 35 votes. 
Nelson Wheatcroft, for Assistant Librarian, received 35 votes. 
James A. Waldron, for Treasurer, received 35 votes. 
The said poll being open from 9 A. m. to 10 A. M., on said 
day. 

And I hereby certify that, no other votes having been cast 
except as above, the above-named persons were, and are duly 
elected, for the offices above-named. 

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand this twenty- 
third day of April, 1895. 

Charles F. Johnson. 
Endorsed: " Filed in the office of the Clerk of the 
City and County of New York, April 30, 1892.'" 



12 



ITbe prc6iDent'£? IReport 

To THE Members of the New York Shakespeare Society. 

Genile}!ie7t: I have the honor to hand you ray tenth consecu- 
tive annual report, covering the report of the Recording Secretary 
up to this date. 

From the Recording Secretary's report it will appear that 
this Society, incorporated in April, 18S5, began to issue its publi- 
cations in August of that same year, and has continued them to 
the present date, averaging the issue of three volumes per year, 
even allowing for the omission of our publications for the year 
1894, for reasons elsewhere explained. 

I sincerely congratulate the Society upon the completion, in 
1893, of its twenty volume Bankside Shakespeare. Certainly no 
such loving and scrupulous care has ever been bestowed before 
upon the mechanical processes which have conveyed Shakespeare 
from the Sixteenth century to our own. And certainly no prior 
Shakespeare society has so insisted on the right of the scholar and 
the reader to his private judgment on eachirrz/.r or difficulty, read- 
ing or emendation: to judge for himself whether he preferred to be- 
lieve that Shakespeare's amanuenses wrote illegibly, or his printers' 
type had been distributed into wrong boxes, or that Shakespeare 
himself wrote nonsense! and certainly no prior Shakespeare 
Society has been willing to disburse a sum of $20,000, in order to 
enable every Shakespeare scholar and reader in the world to ex- 
ercise that right ! 

The New York Shakespeare Society is a publication society, 
and to its achievements in this field it looks for its laurels ; and 
we think that, so far, it has no reason for hesitating to compare its 
record in that field with the record of any of its contemporaries. 

Besides the Bankside, our earlier publications— in neat i6mo, 
in their covers of black and gold, (Shakespeare's colors), and bear- 
ing the device of the Society, the fac-simile of the pen and ink 
sketch of the Arms afterwards granted to his father at Shakes- 
peare's instance — stand to our credit. In addition to this, too, 
the Society, from 1886 to 1893 (inclusive), edited and conducted 
as its official organ, Shakespeareana, a handsome quarterly of 
sixty pages, royal 8vo, published by The Leonard Scott Publica- 
tion Company of this city. 

13 



In 1894, owing to the unexampled financial stress, the Leonard 
Scott Company, after sufficient and courteous notice to us. was 
constrained to discontinue this Quarterly. For the same finan- 
cial considerations, this Society omitted issuing during the year 
1894 any volumes of the Bankside Sequel, which has been pro- 
jected to include the Shakespeare plays of which no quarto text 
— or text prior to the folio text of 1623 — exists. But the Society 
believes that such omission, with the advent of better times, need 
not continue, nor has the Society, for its part, relaxed its ener- 
gies or its efforts to continue the work to its final completion. 

On the completion of this work, a title index to the subjects 
treated in the Bankside Introductions, and a careful and laborious 
concordance to the collations of the whole, is to accompany it. 

Besides the Bankside sequel, the Society has also announced 
its plan of issuing — in volumes also uniform with the Bankside 
Shakespeare — a new series, to contain the Shakespeare plays re- 
written by Dryden and D'Avenant in 1660-1714, (which have never 
been reprinted), under the title of the The Bankside Restoration 
Series. 

As to the Society's most ambitious prnject, however. The 
Five Text Hamlet. I regret that I am unable to rejort any 
progress since the completion of the exceedingly laborious and 
intricate manuscript about eighteen months ago. When we 
reflect upon our past achievements, however: the conception 
of the Bankside, and its completion: and remember that the 
" New Shakespeare Society " of London failed with its less 
ambitious project of a four-text Hamlet, in spite of its ex- 
tensive membership among the wealthy and gentle classes of 
Great Britain, we feel that we have no cause for discouragement. 
Indeed, in view of the extraordinary financial stress of the times, 
perhaps we have done wisely in postponing so unique and 
costly a venture. And perhaps too — since we have done our own 
work faithfully and well, some loyal and generous Shakespearean 
will come to our aid in meeting the financial demand of this mag- 
nificent undertaking. Certainly, when completed, our Five-Text 
Hamlet will be the grandest monument to its subscribers which 
they could by any foresight desire. If linking ourselves insepar- 
ably with the deathless name of Shakespeare is not "hitching 
one's wagon to a star," it would be hard to imagine in what that 
Emersonian process would consist. 

So much for the Society's labors and achievements. As to 
the consideration in which the Society itself has been held, it is 
becoming for us to speak modestly. I may be permitted to re- 
mind you. that, within a year of our incorporation, the late revered 

14 



and eminent Dr. Barnard, president of Columbia College, person- 
ally moved the trustees of that university to extend to the trus- 
tees of the New York Shakespeare Society permission for us to 
occupy an assembly room of the west wing of the College build- 
ing on Forty-ninth Street and Madison Avenue, known as Hamil- 
ton Hall, for our literary exercises. 

Not a few European editors of the text have been eager to 
place upon their title pages — after their own names and honors 
— the legend ''Honorary member of the Shakespeare Society of 
New York." The most eminent of them all, our first honorary 
member, the illustrious James Orchard Halliwell Phillipps (whose 
sixty years of labor in the honor of Shakespeare and in the accu- 
mulation of Shakespeare's relics and vestiges, were crowned, Janu- 
ary 3, 1889, by his peaceful death, at Hollingbury Copse, in the 
midst of that vast collection of memorials of the master he had 
so patiently and lovingly collected), left by will to the Shakes- 
peare Society of New York his entire collection of plates, cuts, 
wood blocks, and electros of wood blocks of Shakespearean ves- 
tiges and details, illustrating his home and his history. Many of 
these the Society used in illustrating the piges of Shakes- 
PEAREANA, and may find it convenient to utilize in its projected 
Bankside Restoration Series. 

In our own country, more than thirty local Shakespeare 
societies have opened communication with us, sought our advice, 
invited our co-operation, and exchanged compliments with us on 
our fraternal occasions. Many, rriost of them in fact, have ex- 
tended to this Society the special compliment of making the 
president an honorary member of their respective societies, a 
dignity which the present incumbent has had the consent of this 
society to accept, and which he will hand to his successor. 

The presentation by the Society of a full set of the Bankside 
Shakespeare (Set No. 454) to the Shakespeare Memorial Library 
at Stratford-upon-Avon, was accepted by that Institution in a 
graceful letter to the president, in which the work of the Society 
was alluded to in terms very agreeable and pleasing to us, as en- 
titling us not only to the commendation of all students of Shakes- 
peare, but especially to the thanks of those in that venerable 
locality who have the official trust of guarding the home and ves- 
tiges of the great dramatist — a praise which we must still more 
endeavor to deserve. 

I beg earnestly to call the attention of our members to the 
statement of the Recording Secretary as to the needs of our 
treasury, and to second his suggestion as to how they can be im- 
mediately supplied by the extension of our resident, and espe- 

15 



cially our non-resident, membership, and by the taking out of life 
membership by those who are already on our rolls. 

Congratulating the Society on its prosperity, its prestige, and 
its promise for the future, all of the above is most respectfully 
submitted. 

Appleton Morgan, 

President. 
Dated, New York City, April 23, 1895. 



16 



IRecorbing Sccuetay^'s IReport. 

I have the honor to report that there are at present 8i 
members on the roll of the Society. 

That the last annual report of the Society, filled according to 
law in the office of the Clerk of the City and County of New York, 
showed that the Society was entirely out of debt for its running 
expenses, and had no financial obligations of any character out- 
standing. 

Having acted as treasurer of the Society during the late 
vacancy in that office, I am happy to be able to add that, at this 
date, the same gratifying statement can be made, and that there 
are practically no unpaid dues or initiation fees at present uncol- 
lected or uncoUectable up to the close of our fiscal year, April 23, 

1895. 

The first publication of this Society was issued in August, 
1888. The total number of publications to date has been — exclus- 
ive of catalogues, circulars of information, lists of publications, 
etc., etc. — twenty-nine. 

The enti're list is as follows : 



I. PAPERS IN BLACK AND GOLD. 

1. Ecclesiastical Law in Hamlet. — The Burial of 
Ophelia. By R. S. Guernsey; sm. 4to, 1885, pp. 25. 

2. "Venus and Adonis." A study in the Warwickshire 
Dialect, with a glossary. By Appleton Morgan ; sm. 4to, 1885, 
pp. 80. 

3. Shakespeare and Alleged Spanish Prototypes. By 
Albert R. Frey ; sm. 4to, 1885, pp. 36. 

4. Digesta Shakespeareana. Compiled under the direc- 
tion of Appleton Morgan. Digest of all works on Shakespearean 
matters, history, criticisms, details, etc. Arranged to subject and 
topic, titles with index and cross references, from 1700 to 1886. — 
Part L, A-F ; sm. 4to, 1886, pp. 48. 

5-6. Time in the Play of Hamlet. By E. P. Vining. — 
Once Used Words in Shakespeare. By James Davie Butler. 

17 



— The First Shakespeare Society. A letter from J. O. Halli- 
well-Phillipps, F.R.S., LL.D.,to the President of the New York 
Shakespeare Society; sm, 4to, 1887, pp. 36. 

7. DiGESTA Shakespeareana. Compiled under the direc- 
tion of Appleton Morgan. Part II., F-Z ; sm. 4to, 88 pp. 

(This work being complete to date of publication in 1887, ex- 
clusive of editions of the I'lays and poems, which the Society 
proposes to catalogue in a separate volume.) 

8. Shakespeare's Methods of Verse Construction, as 
seen in the Othello. Sm. 4to, pp. 35. 

II. THE BANKSIDE SHAKESPEARE. 

Being the plays performed at the Globe and Blackfriar's 
Theatres (circa), 1 591-1623. The Players' text of the earliest 
quartos of each play printed in the lifetime of the dramatist, 
paralleled with the first folio text of 1623. Printed from exact re- 
productions by photography of the two texts, with their typo- 
graphical errors, breaks, misplaced punctuations, ornaments, etc.: 
the "justification" of the lines being exact — with historical and 
circumstantial introductions, as to the material, genesis and 
records of each play. Including no criticism — literary "sign- 
post," or by way of commentary. In this edition every line or 
part of a line, whether text or stage direction, exit or entrance, is 
twice numbered, once for each text, while at intervals a third 
column of notation calls the student's attention to the equiva- 
lents. Besides this scrupulous line by line collation, each vol- 
ume also contains two tables of collations, in which the quarto 
reproduced is collated by its "signatures" to the Folio line, column 
and page. For the scrupulous accuracy of the reproduced texts 
the Society itself is responsible. The introductions are the result 
of the personal and special study, by each member, of a single play- 
and to each is signed the name of the individual member and 
editor. 

Twenty volumes: de luxe; laid paper, uncut, boards Roxburge 
style. Five hundred copies printed from type, hand-numbered and 
registered with the Society. Each copy contains a certificate sign- 
ed by a committee of the Society, pledging the Society's faith to 
this effect. Edited by Messrs. Appleton Morgan, Albert R. Frey, 
William Reynolds, B. Rush Field, Alvey A. Adee, Alfred Waiess, 
E. P. Vining, Elias C. Calkins, Henry Paine Stokes and Charle 
W. Thomas, under the general editorship of Dr. Morgan. 

Shakespeareana. 1885-1893. Square twelvemo and 

18 




DESIGN FOR A STATUE OF EDGAR ALLAN POE, 
To be Erected by the New York Shakespeare Society— William Ordway Partridge, Sculpt. 



quarto, five volumes, numbered with an earlier series of this pub- 
lication VI., VII., VIII., IX. and X. 

The Society and the Fad. An address delivered before 
the Shakespeare Club of New York City by Appleton Morgan. 

The last of our small quarto black and gold "Papers" was 
issued in the fall of 1887. In 1888, April 2, the first volume of 
the Bankside was issued to subscribers, the last volume, the 20th, 
having been delivered August 15, 1892. A remarkable average of 
five volumes a year, which reflects the greatest credit alike on 
the editor-in-chief and his associates, as well as upon the print- 
ers and proof-readers of this unique and monumental work. 

Having, at the request of the Executive Committee, dis- 
charged the duties of Treasurer of the Society during the late 
interregnum in that office, I may perhaps be pardoned a sugges- 
tion which otherwise would more properly have been included in 
our Treasurer's report. 

It is that our treasury, owing to recent extra drains upon it, 
caused by circumstances over which we had no control, and which 
are not likely to repeat themselves — is practically empty, and that 
our members can readily contribute to its repletion by exerting 
themselves to extend our resident and non-resident membership, 
and by themselves taking out life memberships in each class. 

All of which is respectfully submitted. 

Albert R. Frey, 



Dated, 21 Park Row, 

New York City, April 23, 1895. 



Recording Secretary. 



New York, January i, 1896. 
Supplementary Report. 
The Recording Secretary begs to state: That on this date 
there on the rolls of this society one hundred and twenty-eight 
members, being an increase of forty-seven members in the nine 
months showing since my last report. 

That although efforts to secure means to print the Five Text 
Hamlet have been unremitting, the society has not as yet been 
able to secure sufficient money or subscriptions to warrant so 
comparatively costly an undertaking. But it is sincerely hoped 
that this delay will not much longer continue. 

That publication of The Bankside Sequel, viz., the seven- 
teen volumes, to comprise the folio, and a modern text of the 

21 



plays of which the quarto text exists, has been begun by issue of 
vol. XXIV, I. The Comedy of Errors. 

That during the year 1896 the society has the pleasure of pre- 
senting to its members a beautiful reproduction of the D'Avenant 
bust of Shakespeare, in lieu of a volume of papers, and that 
copies of "The Society and The Fad" have also been distributed 
to members. 

The Poe Cotttage Project, 

That in June, 1895, the attention of the society was called tO' 
the fact that the cottage of Edgar Allan Poe, which still stood — in 
a neglected condition — on the old Kingsbridge road at Fordham, 
in Westchtster county, and that no literary society appeared to 
take an interest in the matter of its preservation. This society de 
termined to make an appeal to its members and to the public, 
offering to restore the cottage to the condition in which it was 
when the poet left it, and maintain it as a monument always lo- 
be open to visitors. Preliminary to its purchase, as to which 
there were other difficulties than the raising of the purchase 
money, the Society resolved to lease the property, and to call a 
meeting there. Accordingly, on September 22, 1895. the society 
held a meeting and luncheon in the cottage. In outlining the 
plans of the society, President Morgan said : 

Gentlemen : Although Edgar Allan Poe has been dead al- 
most fifty years, and although his genius has been acknowledged 
and admired by every English speaking race for more than half a 
century, this is the first time that here, on this spot, where he 
lived and suffered unmerciful disaster, a demonstration of his fel- 
low-citizens and admirers has been made in his honor. But, 
instead of approving ourselves upon having at last come together 
o testify our admiration of Edgar Allen Poe's power and genius,. 
I thinl: we ought rather to feel humiliated with shame to think how 
long our tribute has been deferred. I think we ought to hang 
our heads for our country and ourselves when wethink that while — 
for half a century we have as a nation responded liberally to every 
appeal to build memorials to the poets and writers of other 
nations — while we have aided to erect deserved monuments to- 
Shelley, to Keats, to Tennyson, even to Carlyle, who growled and 
bit his nails at us — we have utterly neglected and ignored the 
grandest and most unique, the most noble and sweetest of our 
poets. And it hardly, I think, mitigates our error, that we have 
raised monuments to the poets of other nations, to Scott, to 
Burns, to Goethe, or even to the world's Shakespeare, while we 
have so utterly and shamefully neglected our brother; who, if we 

22 



liave one at all, was, and is certainly, our American Shakes- 
peare. 

The New York Shakespeare Society has invited you here to- 
day, gentlemen, to consult with us and see how we can (tardily 
as it is) at last right this wrong, and wipe out this disgrace. If 
the trne poet, the patient, laborious, honest, kin-loving and fam- 
ily-loving man who lived and starved here on this spot, within 
these homely walls, has ever suffered a word of obloquy from us 
let us first pray here and now to be forgiven. If he deserved 
bitterness and suffering, at least he had his cup filled with them 
to the brim in his lifetime. It is not for our day and generation 
to fill that cup again. There, in that room, the wife of his youth 
in the depth of winter lay sick, with no covering, relying upon 
what warmth she could get by holding a pet cat to her bosom 
-and Poe saw her fade away and die without a friendly hand raised 
to aid him. Surely we have sins enough of our own to answer 
ior, without adding more misery to the name of this dead man ! 
I am sure that no one of us has ever loaded his little wheelbar- 
Tow full of mire to empty upon the grave of Edgar Allen Poe. 
Many there are, however, who have loaded up such heaps to 
empty upon his poor grave. He has not slept the less calmly 
nor the less peacefully ! But for the defilers, let us only ask that 
they be forgiven, too.? When the mournful story of his life was 
written out, the book of it was not closed. It has been kept 
open for more mire, and for dishonor and for more obloquy, and 
-even to-day those who are editing in noble volumes his immortal 
works, write depreciatory biographies and patronizing notices and 
-apologies for what they call his "misspent life." 

His misspent life! Gentlemen, if Edgar Allan Poe, while 
writing his immortal prose and poetry, kept body and soul to- 
gether with a glass of brandy, I am tempted to say I thank God 
-for that glass of brandy ! I am rather tempted to congratulate 
English literature that he did not sign any pledge of total absti- 
nence until he had carved in living words, in words that we read 
today, years after he wrote them, his place in letters, a place 
that nobody ever filled before, and that nobody has had the te- 
merity to rush into and try to occupy since ! 

However, let me briefly state to you what our committee has 
■done during the vacation just passed, and ask yourr atification 
of their efforts. 

You see the tumbledown condition of this property and the al- 
most piecemeal condition of these walls. As the property stands, 
and this Society has secured it, it is for sale to us ; but the diffi- 
culty in purchasing it as it stands is, that the city is about to wid- 

23 



en this historic old thoroughfare, the Kingsbridge road, and 
that will cut this poor cottage just in half. So we must move it 
if we wish to preserve it, and we must act quickly. Your com- 
mittee has been assured by expert and responsible house-movers 
that they will guarantee to move it one hundred feet in any di- 
rection, but not a foot more. So when in June last your com- 
mittee saw that there was no time to be lost, they took the liber- 
ty of asking subsciiptions for a fund, the object of which was to 
be to purchase and preserve this cottage, if not upon the ground 
where it now stands, at least" somewhere in the near vicinity. 
The appeal was responded to with more enthusiasm than the ter- 
rible heat of the summer would have suggested, and several hun- 
dred dollars has already been placed in your committee's hands, 
or promised to them. As both the mother and the father of Ed- 
gar Allen Poe were actors, is has been thought best to appeal 
particularly to the dramatic profession for assistance in paying for 
this property, and your committee will at once take steps in that 
direction. 

Mr. Thomas W. Keene has generously given us $ioo ; Mr. Au- 
gustin Daly has cabled us from Europe a subscription of $50 
and a promise of more. Sir Henry Irving also has applied 
to become a subscriber. And three prominent artists have agreed 
to give benefit performances at prominent city theatres for the 
fund. And we shall succeed m preserving this cottage as a mem- 
orial of our greatest poet, to be kept always open as a shrine 
sacred to his memory, and maintained with appropriate furnish- 
ings. An offer from San Francisco to aid in erecting a monument 
to the poet to stand facing this cottage on its new site when se- 
cured has reached us. Another from Baltimore promises a replica 
of the bronze raven over his cenotaph in that city to crown our 
gateway. In short, from every quarter, your committee, having 
scarcely done more than broach this project, have met with 
friendly suggestions and offers of co-operation. And two leading 
newspapers of this city have promised that at the proper time 
they will call and continue to call public attention to our efforts. 

If it is asked why the New York Shakespeare Society has under- 
taken this work, I answer, first, because we are a New York soci- 
ety ; and secondly, because we are a Shakespeare society ! and be- 
cause Edgar Allan Poe was our American Shakespeare. I might 
add, thirdly, because there is no Poe Society, and because nobody 
else has come forward to do this work. 

I do not wish to detain you further, but before we separate you 
will be asked to endorse the proceedings of the committee and to 
agree to aid us in making this project a success. In its ten years 

2t 



•of life the New York Shakespeare Society has never undertaken 
any project which it did not complete,or make anj'^ promise which 
it has not fulfilled, and this one is not going to be an exception 

On motion of Mr. Wallace Bruce, the proceedings of the com- 
mittee were endorsed, and ordered recorded in the minutes of 
the society. 

The meeting of the society was very [successful, and gave im- 
petus to the movement for the preservation of the cottage. Sev- 
eral prominent persons have since the meeting subscribed to the 
fund, and in other ways shown interest in the matter. Altogether 
the occasion was a most enjoyable one, and its luncheon in the 
Poe cottage, at Fordham, New York City, will be a red-letter day 
in the annals of the society. The following officers of the soci- 
ety have been appointed a committee to receive subscriptions for 
the cottage project, viz.: Appleton Morgan, Albert R. Frey are 
trustees of the Poe Cottage Fund. Purchas-ng committee, 
Harrison Grey Fiske, of the Lotus Club ; Nelson Wheatcroft, of 
the Lambs' Club; J. Henry Magonigle, of the Players' Club; and 
J. Clarence Davies, of the Reform Club. 



At its regular meeting, January 30, 1896, the Society voted to 
accept the design for a bronze statue of Poe, presented to it by 
William Ordway Partridge, Esq., a member of the Society, whose 
statue of Shakespeare, in Lincoln Park, Chicago, and other dis- 
tinguished works, have made him one of the most famous of 
American sculptors, such statue to be executed and placed before 
the cottage, when moved to a permanent site. Voted, also, 
that an illustration of the model be inserted in the Society's Year 
Book for 1896. 



25 



flDembersbip. 



Abbey, Henry 

Baker, B. W. 

Baker, Ernest E. 

Baker, George Livingston 

Barrett, Wilson 

Bartlett, John 

Bates, William O. 

Beck, Mathias A. 

Calkins, Elias A. 
Chapman, David D. R. 
Child, Josiah 

Dale. J. Y. 
Daly, Augustin 
Daulton, George 
Davis, Cushman K. 
Davies, J. Clarence 
Dayton, Charles W. 

Edelheim, Carl 
Edgerton, J. A. 
Egan, Maurice Francis 

Field, B. Rush 
Fiske, Harrison Grey 
Furness, Horace Howard 

Gaylord, W. A. Edward 
Gill, W. Fearing 
Glendenning, John 
Greene, Herbert Eveleth 

Hagner, Alexander B. 

Harris, E. W. 

Holmes, George Frederick 

Irving, Sir Henry 

Jesup, Morris K. 
Johnson, Henry 



Adee, Alvey A. 

Bennett, Rawson 
Berg, Albert EUery 
Booth, Lionel 
Boyle, Samuel A. 
Bruce, Wallace 
Burton, Le Grand. 



Cole, Carter S. 
Cooke, Martin W. 

De Grange, Joseph H. 
Drake, Frederick R. 
Devecmon, W. C. 
Doak, Henry M. 
Dowling, Robert E. 

Elam, W. C. 
Emmens, T. F. 



Forehand, S. 
Frey, Albert R. 

Griffiths. L. M. 
Gunther, Charles A. 
Guthrie, S. L. 



Harrison, Ralph C. 
Hinton, A. Chalmers 



Johnson, L. A. 



Keene, Thomas W. 



Kirk, Milton W. 



Lackaye, Wilton 
Ladd, Charles E. 
Lawrence, Randolph Morgan 

Magonigle, Geo. H. 
Magonigle, J. Henry 
Malone, John 
Merriam, William R. 
Morgan, Appleton 

Nichols, Charles L. 

Osborne, Thomas M. 

Paine, Frederick H. 
Partridge, William Ordway 
Phelps, Charles E. 

Reed, Edwin 
Reynolds, William 
Rhodes, James Pond 
Robinson, Harry P. 

Shaw, N. Archibald, Jr. 
Slicer, Thomas R. 
Smith, C. Alphonso 
Smith, J. Lawrence 
Snagge, Thomas W. 
Spencer, Thomas J. 
Sprague, Homer B. 

Thayer, William C. 
Thomas, Charles W. 
Thomas, Lawrence Bulckeley 
Timmins, Samuel 

Vickery, Willis 

Wait, Sheridan Paul 
Waites, Alfred 
Wakeman, Thaddeus B. 
Waldron, James A. 
Walker, Dexter H. 
Warner, Beverley E. 
Wheatcroft, Nelson 
Whitaker, John E. 



Leo, F. A. 
Logan, Walter S. 
Loomis, Charles Battell 

Morgan, David T. 
Moulton, Charles Wells 
Muller, Paul 
McClure, William J. 
McElroy, William H. 



Poole, Murray E. 
Pound, John Evermonde 
Prynne, Charles M. 

Robinson, Nugent 
Rolfe, William J. 
Russell, Charles E. 

Stewart, Perez M. 
Stokes, Henry Paine 
Stringer, George Alfred 
Sturgis, W. C. 
Suplee, Thomas D. 
Swinburne, Algernon Charles. 

Torrey, D. 

Tracey, Frank Edwards 
Twiggs, Oscar L. 
Tyndall, William D. 

Vining, Edward P. 

Whiteside, Walker 
Wilder, D. W. 
Wilson, Floyd B. 
Wood, C. E. S. 
Woodcock, D. C. 
Wyatt, Thomas M. 
Wyman, William H. 



Yeomans, William Moodie. 



27 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



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